


Taako Is Dead But It's Not Sad Anymore

by Blizardstar



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: If I formatted or tagged anything wrong please tell me, Like i didn't tag major character death because Taako is already dead, M/M, This is the first work I'm posting on here so like, and I didn't like show him getting killed, but if y'all think i should change that let me know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 12:23:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12457731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizardstar/pseuds/Blizardstar
Summary: Originally posted on Tumblr as a part of this post: http://blue-mood-blue.tumblr.com/post/166111662032/hey-ever-think-about-the-fact-that-taako About what if Taako had died at some point before meeting Magnus & Merle and what that would be like. I felt like it was long enough to qualify as fic so I'm posting it here too! Please go read that post before reading the fic because this fic acts as a sort of continuation!





	Taako Is Dead But It's Not Sad Anymore

They need to leave.

If they leave then Taako will come back.

That’s all Lup can think after they know for sure that Taako is dead. She tries to persuade the rest of the IPRE crew to go with her on this but they aren’t as on board and their hesitation drives her to attempt to steal the Starblaster in the middle of the night to MAKE them all leave with her. Davenport, who sleeps on the ship now, has to get Avi to help him wrestle her to the ground to stop her.

Lup tries so hard to convince them. They’ve defeated the hunger permanently, this world isn’t going to get destroyed if they leave and no other world ever will! They don’t have to worry about anyone being hurt if they go, why the hesitation? They never had any problems leaving a world they had saved before, why now?If they leave then Taako comes back, Merle gets his arm back, Lucretia is young again! She doesn’t get how attached they’ve become to this world. After all, she’s spent the majority of her time on in stuck in a cave, trapped inside of the Umbrastaff. She hasn’t really had the time to become invested in the lives of anyone here.  
Magnus is the most against it. If he leaves he’ll never see Julia again. She’d never even know why, she would just spend eternity waiting for him in the Astral Plane, only for him to never come. He can’t do that and refuses to even continue that conversation with Lup. He’s not the only one who doesn’t want to leave. Merle has a family now, he can’t abandon his kids, not after he just got close to them again. Lucretia is the head of a major humanitarian organization. Angus would be devastated if they left. They have lives here. They can’t just leave.

Lup just cries because she knows she can’t force them. She can’t hurt her friends like that. They all know first hand what it’s like when one person makes a decision for the whole group because they think it’s best. But she still hurts. Barry tries to comfort her, but even though she loves him with all her heart, Taako ~~was~~ _is_ her heart, and now he’s gone.

She wishes she had never become a lich. She wishes she hadn’t cursed herself with immortality. No matter how her physical form wears out, whether from injury or old age _centuries_ from now, she’ll still be stuck on the Prime Material Plane in her lich form forever. She really will never see her brother again.  
— — —  
Turns out “never” is a lot sooner than anyone thinks.  
The reaper Kravitz finds them. And hey, the M-Boys (Being Magnus and Merle) remember that guy! He came to collect their souls in Lucas’s lab, and then again after their time in Refuge. They worked out an agreement though, why is he here again? None of them have died. Kravitz acknowledges this and says he still respects the agreement he made with Magnus and Merle and the citizens of Refuge. This time, he’s here for Barry and Lup. He can’t have two liches just wandering around out here.

Lup is almost eager to go, but before she can say anything Kravitz just looks at her flabbergasted because _why the fuck do you look so much like my boyfriend?_  
Suddenly Kravitz’s cryptic statements about getting “the rest of them,” and “knowing more about your pasts than even you do,” make a lot more sense.  
He opens a portal to the Astral Plane and they see an island with not one, but two cabins on it. One obviously expertly crafted, the other extravagantly decorated and held together more by magic than nails.

From these cabins emerge two figures, one familiar to all, one familiar only to Magnus. Lup almost dives into the rift, wanting to be with Taako, before Barry grabs her because he’s not so sure he wants anyone to die quite yet. Julia and Magnus just look at each other lovingly. They put their hands up to the rift, knowing that they can’t _really_ touch but the illusion is almost enough. Taako just laughs. “Well babe, not exactly the way I expected to introduce you to my family, but here they are! Kravitz, everyone. Everyone, Kravitz. Although from what he’s told me, he’s already met you M-Boys over there. Sorry he made Magnus chop off your arm Merle. New one looks good on you though. Very Pan.”  
Kravitz can’t let them leave the Astral Plane, so he maintains the rift so they can all talk across it. And boy do they sure fucking talk.  
— — —  
Kravitz was shocked 12 years ago when he got the seven rather thick files on a group on individuals who had died so many times it honestly just felt _rude_ that they hadn’t shown up in the Astral Plane yet. When he finally gets word that one of them has finally died again he rushes to bring them to the Astral Plane and the Eternal Stockade before whoever this is can do whatever it is that has allowed them to escape him so many times.

Except when he gets there, it’s not at all what he expects. He expects a fight, a struggle, to see some crazy powerful necromantic magic. But he doesn’t find any of that. What he does find is an elven wizard who just looks… kind of out of it. He’s holding his head in his hands and Kravitz can see the tear tracks on his face. When Kravitz approaches he barely acknowledges him, just stands and sighs and waits for him to take him to the Astral Plane. He doesn’t seem scared or angry, it’s as if the process of dying is almost routine to him. Kravitz supposes that by the ninth time you do it, it really would be. He gets a bit more information out of the elf as they walk into the Astral Plane. His name is Taako Taaco, and yeah he knows about the death count thing, but he’d really rather not talk about it right now, he’s honestly still trying to wrap his head around it himself. He’s been through a lot in the last few hours, the _least_ of which has been dying. Kravitz decides to give Taako some time on an island before having him join the rest of the souls in the sea below. Being able to speak to him would help Kravitz get closer to the rest of the strange cases that came in with Taako’s. That’s how he justifies it to the Raven Queen anyway. ~~This decision is definitely not influenced at all because he thinks that Taako is kind of cute. Not even a little.~~ He brings Taako to the island where he’s put Julia Burnsides. After all, best to keep all your related leads in one place.

Over the next while, Taako opens up. WAAAYYY up really. Kravitz wonders how this much personality was ever dampened for a second, even by death. Taako spends most of his days talking with Julia. He’s fascinated by how anyone was able to knock some sense into _Magnus “I want to fight the Power Bear” Burnsides_ , while she’s fascinated by the stories of the extraordinary life Magnus lived before he came to Raven’s Roost. She wonders aloud why he never talked about it, and Taako gets sullen again.

During this time period, he also talks to Kravitz. Taako is a much better lead than Julia was for learning about these strange seven cases of dozens of deaths. He actually knows why and how it all happened. But he still has no idea where they could be. Julia would be the best lead for the whereabouts of Magnus, Lup and Barry are both ~~probably dead liches~~ missing, and he has no idea where Lucretia would have sent Merle or Davenport. At least he assumes it was Lucretia. She’s the one with the most access to both Fisher and a written record of all their lives after all. 

Over the next few years they gradually open up as they learn more about each other. Taako learns about Kravitz’ service to the Raven Queen as a reaper and how he really wanted to be a conductor. Kravitz learns about Taako’s past living with his sister on the road, of his 100 year journey, of his teammates, of his career as a celebrity chef. Even though none of them need to eat, Taako still cooks when Kravitz comes to visit, and sometimes just for himself and Julia if he’s in the mood. Taako is a transmutation wizard, but for reasons he won’t say he refuses to transmute ingredients for cooking, so Kravitz makes sure he always has the ingredients he needs. They don’t say anything at first but Kravitz begins to come over more often, staying longer and longer and asking fewer and fewer questions about the rest of the IPRE and more about Taako. It takes Kravitz’ first night sleeping over that they fully realize how deeply they’ve fallen for each other.  
— — —  
Lup and Barry take the job offers to be reapers readily. For Lup, it’s more chances to see her brother as she drags escaped souls back into the Eternal Stockade. Death had separated them for far longer than it ever had before this time around, and she was sick of it. For Barry it was so he could stay with Lup and because it really didn’t seem like Kravitz was giving them another option, other than Ghost Jail.

Lucretia makes some calls and Lucas offers to build a robot body for Taako. Kravitz decides that these people have all broken the rules so many times already that it really doesn’t matter anymore. At least Taako _actually came to the Astral Plane after dying_ in this world _**unlike some people**_. It’s still not quite normal but it’s something. Now Taako has a way for him and Kravitz to go do more things together. Dinner dates were getting a bit stale at that point, even with Taako being the chef. Plus having to wear the same outfit he died in every single day was boring him. Ghost fashion isn’t really a thing in the Astral Plane y'know.

He still has to return to his spiritual form in the Astral Plane to kiss Kravitz properly though, given the lack of robot lips, so he leaves his robotic body with Lucretia for safe keeping when he does. If anyone knows how to guard and keep hidden something important, it’s Lucretia. Magnus would also have been a good candidate to protect his body, that is, if he could be sure he would still have his arms attached the next time Taako got into it he would be.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to include a bit where Kravitz confronts Taako about how he somehow glossed over the fact that his sister and her boyfriend were both liches and two of the liches he was out hunting, separate from their bounties and Taako acts all innocent and coy "must have slipped my mind" but they all know he's too smart for that but it just didn't flow properly with the rest of the fic.


End file.
